R&R – Reachout and Rebuild

Will Zeldin protect our right to vote?

From: Daily Kos <campaigns@dailykos.com>
Just in case anyone thought it was a conspiracy theory to claim that Donald Trump was undermining the postal service in order to prevent mail-in ballots from being counted, on Thursday Trump flat out said it himself:

Trump saying clearly on Fox why he won’t fund USPS. “Now they need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots…But if they don’t get those two items that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting…”

Trump is clearly FREAKED OUT by the prospect of mail-in voting and doing whatever he can to suppress it. Politico even reports that Trump’s aides are exploring ways that Trump can curb mail-in voting through executive orders.

The more people vote, the less likely Trump is to win. He knows it, we know it. That’s why, as I detailed in the email below this one, Trump is doing everything he can to suppress the vote, while at Daily Kos we are doing everything we can to help people vote:

• Trump is using Facebook and Fox News to spread disinformation about mail-in voting, while we are using every communication channel we have to debunk those lies and tell the truth about its near-total safety and security.
• Trump is filing lawsuits to keep mail-in ballots out of the hands of voters, while we are sending hundreds of thousands of constituent letters to elected officials demanding full funding for the postal service and mail-in voting.
• Trump is undermining and defunding the postal service, while we are funding 28 local civic engagement organizations in five crucial swing states who are providing on-the-ground support to help frontline communities vote.
• Trump is recruiting 50,000 volunteers, including veterans and off-duty law enforcement officers, to intimidate prospective voters at polling places, while we are recruiting twice that many volunteers to work on turning out the Democratic vote.

Donald Trump has a multi-pronged campaign to suppress the vote in order to win re-election. At Daily Kos, we have a multi-pronged campaign to stop him.

First, here is Trump’s plan:

• First, thanks to Big Tech companies like Facebook, Trump and his right-wing allies are using social media to spread disinformation about voting, in particular about the safety and security of voting by mail.
• Second, in case the disinformation doesn’t work and Americans go ahead and request mail-in ballots anyway, Republicans are spending millions of dollars on lawsuits designed to keep mail-in ballots out of the hands of prospective voters whenever possible.
• Third, in the event that prospective voters are able to acquire mail-in ballots, Trump has installed a Postmaster General who has deliberately slowed down mail delivery, with an eye toward preventing as many mail-in ballots from being counted as possible.
• Finally, in the event that people give up on mail voting and decide risk their health by voting in person, Trump’s campaign, via the Republican National Committee, is giving millions of dollars to Republican state parties to recruit 50,000 volunteers–including veterans and off-duty law enforcement officers–to directly intimidate prospective voters and challenge ballots at “key precincts.”

At Daily Kos, we are not going to let this campaign against democracy stand. We will fight to cancel it, every step of the way:

• First, through our heavily trafficked website, and our vast email and SMS lists, we collectively generate over 100,000,000 views from an average of 9,000,000 people every month. We have used, and will continue to use, these enormous channels to combat the right-wing disinformation campaign about voting by mail, and arm millions of grassroots activists with the truth: voting by mail drives up turnout, keeps you safe from disease, and is extremely secure.
• Second, while we cannot afford high-priced lawyers to combat Republican lawsuits aimed at keeping mail-in ballots out of the hands of voters, we can more than make up for that with grassroots activism. This spring and summer, we have been coordinating with dozens of progressive organizations to send millions of letters to Congress, demanding full funding for voting by mail and for election security, and we will not relent until we win that campaign In the coming weeks, we will take that campaign to the state and local level, working with allies to pressure elected officials at every level to ensure a safe, democratic and high turnout presidential election.
• Third, due to reports of delayed mail delivery, we are participating in an experiment with our primary Get Out the Vote partner, Vote Forward, to determine if the millions of letters our volunteers are preparing to mail to Democratic swing state voters in late October need to be sent out earlier this year than initially planned.
• Finally, we are countering Republican efforts to intimidate prospective voters at the polls by recruiting two volunteers to help people vote for every one volunteer the GOP recruits to frighten them. Further, we are providing hundreds of thousands of dollars to local civic engagement groups who are on the ground in five key swing states–Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina, and Wisconsin–making sure those organizations have the resources they need to protect the right to vote for the diverse, frontline communities who bear the brunt of Trump’s assault on the right to vote

We are fighting back against Donald Trump’s comprehensive assault on democracy with a comprehensive defense of it. However, as a grassroots funded organization we can only go as far as you take us.

Please, chip in $5 a month to Daily Kos for the three months between now and Election Day and help us cancel Republican voter suppression.

Keep fighting,
Chris Bowers
Executive Campaign Director, Daily Kos